Special sneakers help migrants cross border illegally

[Keith]

Special sneakers help migrants cross border illegally

SAN DIEGO - The high-top sneakers cost $215 at a San Diego boutique, but the designer is giving them away to migrants before they cross to this side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

These are no ordinary shoes.

A compass and flashlight dangle from one shoelace. The pocket in the tongue is for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border region is printed on a removable insole.

They are red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag. On the back ankle, a drawing of Mexico's patron saint of migrants. On this side of the border, the shoes sit in art collections or the closets of well-heeled sneaker collectors. On the other side, in Tijuana, it's a utilitarian affair: Immigrants-to-be are happy to have the sturdy, light-weight shoes for the hike or dash into the United States.

Their designer is Judi Werthein, an Argentine artist who moved to New York in 1997 legally, she

On recent evening in Tijuana, after giving away 50 pairs at a migrant shelter, Werthein waved the insole and pointed to Interstate 8, the main road between San Diego and Phoenix.

"This blue line is where you want to go," Werthein, 38, said in Spanish.

"Good luck! You're all very courageous," she told the cheering crowd of about 50 men huddled in a recreation room after dinner.

"God bless you!" several cried back.

Werthein has concluded that shoes are a border crosser's most important garment.

"The main problem that people have when they're crossing is their feet," Werthein. "If people are going to cross anyway, at least this will make it safer."

Only 1,000 pairs of the "Brinco" sneakers (it means "Jump" in Spanish) have been made in China, for $17 each. The shoes were introduced in August at inSite, an art exhibition in San Diego and Tijuana whose sponsors include nonprofit foundations and private collectors.

Benefactors put up $40,000 for the project; Werthein gets a $5,000 stipend, plus expenses.

The shoes have kicked up a mini-controversy in art circles.

A San Diego surgeon told Werthein that she was encouraging illegal immigration a charge she rejects, saying people will cross with or without her shoes. The surgeon's wife sided with her, Werthein said, and bought the shoes.

Chris and Eloisa Haudenschild display a pair of the sneakers at their resplendent San Diego home. Eloisa Haudenschild said the shoes portray an uncomfortable reality about the perils of crossing the border.

"It's a reality that we don't like to look at," she said. "That's what an artist points out."

Across the border, several curious migrants waiting for sunset along a cement river basin approached Werthein as she emptied a sport utility vehicle of white shoe boxes. One man already wore a dirty pair of Brincos. Another, Felipe de Jesus Olivar Canto, slipped into a size 11 and said he would use them instead of his black leather shoes.

"These are much more comfortable for hiking," according to Olivar Canto, who said he was heading for $6.75-an-hour work installing doors and windows in Santa Ana, about 90 miles north of the border. "The ones I have are more dressy."

From there, Werthein went to Casa del Migrante, a Tijuana shelter that will receive a share of the proceeds from Brincos sold in the United States.

Jose Garcia, 30, eased into a size 10, which he said he would wear to cross the California desert on his way to Las Vegas or Phoenix.

"Those are way too heavy, and they don't breathe," he said, pointing to clunky hiking boots that he tossed aside.

"Does it have a sensor to alert us to the Border Patrol?" joked Javier Lopez, 33, who said he had a $10-an-hour job hanging drywall waiting for him in Denver.

This isn't the first time Werthein has tried to appeal to art aficionados and low-wage workers alike. In 2002, she turned a room in the Bronx Museum into a salon, painting the walls pink and inviting the public to get their fingernails covered with work from the museum's collection.

Blends, a downtown San Diego boutique, displays the shoes on a black pedestal. Werthein says Blends and Printed Matter, a store in Manhattan, have sold about 350 pairs.

"I wouldn't wear them, and I wouldn't want my husband to wear them," said Blends browser Antonieta LaRussa, 28. "But the cause is awesome. There's so much opposition to immigration. She's looking at it from the other side of the fence and asking why."

To research the best design over two years, Werthein interviewed shoe designers, migrants, aid workers, even an immigrant smuggler. She joined the Mexican government's Grupo Beta migrant-aid society on long border hikes. She heard from a Salvadoran woman in Tijuana who said she was kidnapped and raped by her smuggler.

Based on those interviews, she added a pocket -- migrants told her they were often robbed. She also added the flashlight -- many cross at night.

Some get lost hence, the compass and map. "If you get lost," she told the men at the shelter, "just go north."

[Marnie]

We need to build a fence to keep these illegals out.

[amor]

Since they're going to try anyway better they get across safely than die in the desert.

[Marnie]

Following that logic, let's disarm the cops and keep our doors unlocked since we might get broken into anyway, let's make it easy for the crooks! Come on folks, these illegals are criminals! Many, not all, come over, steal our cars if we live near the border, tresspass on our land if we live near the border, and--don't let this shock your liberal sensibilities--steal from, murder and rape our citizens. These people need to be rounded up and deported pronto. We need to absolutely secure our borders, both north and south, and make it even more dangerous for these people to sneak into our country. We need troops on our southern border, at least, if you don't want a fence. These Minutemen who are patrolling parts of the soutnern border are tremendous patriots in my book. Pres. Bush, whom I love, has dropped the ball on this issue completely. There is a legal way for people to come into this country. My church has a two couples in it who are going through the process legally; one from Canada and one from Mexico. So far both couples combined have spent over $6,000.00 and it has taken them both three years to legally obtain Green Cards, which are actually kind of pink now. These are the kind of hard working, skilled and honest immigrants you want in your communities, not so slimey low life who can't make it in his own country, who sees the US as one big buffet table!

[kiwimac]

Following that logic, let's disarm the cops and keep our doors unlocked since we might get broken into anyway, let's make it easy for the crooks! Come on folks, these illegals are criminals! Many, not all, come over, steal our cars if we live near the border, tresspass on our land if we live near the border, and--don't let this shock your liberal sensibilities--steal from, murder and rape our citizens. These people need to be rounded up and deported pronto. We need to absolutely secure our borders, both north and south, and make it even more dangerous for these people to sneak into our country. We need troops on our southern border, at least, if you don't want a fence. These Minutemen who are patrolling parts of the soutnern border are tremendous patriots in my book. Pres. Bush, whom I love, has dropped the ball on this issue completely. There is a legal way for people to come into this country. My church has a two couples in it who are going through the process legally; one from Canada and one from Mexico. So far both couples combined have spent over $6,000.00 and it has taken them both three years to legally obtain Green Cards, which are actually kind of pink now. These are the kind of hard working, skilled and honest immigrants you want in your communities, not so slimey low life who can't make it in his own country, who sees the US as one big buffet table!

Gosh I wonder whatever happened to

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Oh and BTW, thats not a very christian attitude you're espousing there, considering all the OT references to justice towards sojourners.

Kiwimac

[Keith]

Gosh I wonder whatever happened to

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Oh and BTW, thats not a very christian attitude you're espousing there, considering all the OT references to justice towards sojourners.

Kiwimac

First of all, what you quoted is not in the Bible, it's on the Statue of Liberty, so it's not a mandate or law. It was a statement that reflected the times when the world was a very different place.

Secondly, times have changed and countries (not just the US) must be security conscious and now limit and screen who they allow to live in their countries.

Thirdly, most other countries have much stricter rules and policies about allowing immigrants to move in and buy land. America is in the position that it is because our policies have been so liberal and open. American Christian culture has become an endangered and persecuted species in our own country because we have allowed so many immigrants to come here and change our laws because they don't like them and find them offensive. Do you think ANY other country does that?

[Bolts]

Special sneakers help migrants cross border illegally

SAN DIEGO - The high-top sneakers cost $215 at a San Diego boutique, but the designer is giving them away to migrants before they cross to this side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

These are no ordinary shoes.

A compass and flashlight dangle from one shoelace. The pocket in the tongue is for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border region is printed on a removable insole.

They are red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag. On the back ankle, a drawing of Mexico's patron saint of migrants. On this side of the border, the shoes sit in art collections or the closets of well-heeled sneaker collectors. On the other side, in Tijuana, it's a utilitarian affair: Immigrants-to-be are happy to have the sturdy, light-weight shoes for the hike or dash into the United States.

Their designer is Judi Werthein, an Argentine artist who moved to New York in 1997 legally, she

On recent evening in Tijuana, after giving away 50 pairs at a migrant shelter, Werthein waved the insole and pointed to Interstate 8, the main road between San Diego and Phoenix.

"This blue line is where you want to go," Werthein, 38, said in Spanish.

"Good luck! You're all very courageous," she told the cheering crowd of about 50 men huddled in a recreation room after dinner.

"God bless you!" several cried back.

Werthein has concluded that shoes are a border crosser's most important garment.

"The main problem that people have when they're crossing is their feet," Werthein. "If people are going to cross anyway, at least this will make it safer."

Only 1,000 pairs of the "Brinco" sneakers (it means "Jump" in Spanish) have been made in China, for $17 each. The shoes were introduced in August at inSite, an art exhibition in San Diego and Tijuana whose sponsors include nonprofit foundations and private collectors.

Benefactors put up $40,000 for the project; Werthein gets a $5,000 stipend, plus expenses.

The shoes have kicked up a mini-controversy in art circles.

A San Diego surgeon told Werthein that she was encouraging illegal immigration a charge she rejects, saying people will cross with or without her shoes. The surgeon's wife sided with her, Werthein said, and bought the shoes.

Chris and Eloisa Haudenschild display a pair of the sneakers at their resplendent San Diego home. Eloisa Haudenschild said the shoes portray an uncomfortable reality about the perils of crossing the border.

"It's a reality that we don't like to look at," she said. "That's what an artist points out."

Across the border, several curious migrants waiting for sunset along a cement river basin approached Werthein as she emptied a sport utility vehicle of white shoe boxes. One man already wore a dirty pair of Brincos. Another, Felipe de Jesus Olivar Canto, slipped into a size 11 and said he would use them instead of his black leather shoes.

"These are much more comfortable for hiking," according to Olivar Canto, who said he was heading for $6.75-an-hour work installing doors and windows in Santa Ana, about 90 miles north of the border. "The ones I have are more dressy."

From there, Werthein went to Casa del Migrante, a Tijuana shelter that will receive a share of the proceeds from Brincos sold in the United States.

Jose Garcia, 30, eased into a size 10, which he said he would wear to cross the California desert on his way to Las Vegas or Phoenix.

"Those are way too heavy, and they don't breathe," he said, pointing to clunky hiking boots that he tossed aside.

"Does it have a sensor to alert us to the Border Patrol?" joked Javier Lopez, 33, who said he had a $10-an-hour job hanging drywall waiting for him in Denver.

This isn't the first time Werthein has tried to appeal to art aficionados and low-wage workers alike. In 2002, she turned a room in the Bronx Museum into a salon, painting the walls pink and inviting the public to get their fingernails covered with work from the museum's collection.

Blends, a downtown San Diego boutique, displays the shoes on a black pedestal. Werthein says Blends and Printed Matter, a store in Manhattan, have sold about 350 pairs.

"I wouldn't wear them, and I wouldn't want my husband to wear them," said Blends browser Antonieta LaRussa, 28. "But the cause is awesome. There's so much opposition to immigration. She's looking at it from the other side of the fence and asking why."

To research the best design over two years, Werthein interviewed shoe designers, migrants, aid workers, even an immigrant smuggler. She joined the Mexican government's Grupo Beta migrant-aid society on long border hikes. She heard from a Salvadoran woman in Tijuana who said she was kidnapped and raped by her smuggler.

Based on those interviews, she added a pocket -- migrants told her they were often robbed. She also added the flashlight -- many cross at night.

Some get lost hence, the compass and map. "If you get lost," she told the men at the shelter, "just go north."

The grass MUST be greener on the other side of the fence!!

[apothanein kerdos]

American Christian culture has become an endangered and persecuted species in our own country because we have allowed so many immigrants to come here and change our laws because they don't like them and find them offensive. Do you think ANY other country does that?

What? Most immigrants are Christian/Catholic when they come over. In fact, if I remember correctly, over 90% of immigrants to the US have been Christian/Catholic....if anything, Christians should be to legalize illegal immigrants as most are Catholic and would provide a strong voting basis against abortion and other things like it.

[Avodah]

I see it this way, if they want to come over, fine, but do it legally. If they can't come over legally there is a good reason I'm sure. They need to be stopped from comming over illegally though.

[nebula]

What? Most immigrants are Christian/Catholic when they come over.

Breaking the law isn't very Christian, though.